1. Field of the Invention
This invention has relation to a tool for clearing ice chips from a hole bored through the ice for the purpose of ice fishing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For as long as man has used fishing lines and fish hooks, man in the northern climes has fished through holes cut in the ice. Initially man used axes and all kinds of heavy sharp tools to cut through the layer of ice to make holes through which fish lines, hooks and bait can be put into the water and through which hooked fish can be removed. Such crude methods result in much splashing of water which comes up into the hole as soon as the first small opening is cut clear through to the bottom surface of the ice. Any water coming above the ice hole will, of course, immediately begin to freeze on the upper surface of the ice, and on the clothes of the ice fisherman.
Ice fishing has become a very popular sport in the northern areas where bodies of water teaming with fish are frozen over to depths considered safe for supporting the fisherman and, oftentimes, even their cars or trucks. A practice developed many years ago of using ice boring tools to bore and chip away at the ice until a cylindrical opening is formed through to the body of water underneath. Being of lower density than the water from which it is formed, the ice chips formed when the hole is bored through the ice will all naturally tend to float to the surface of the water. This ice must be removed for satisfactory ice fishing. If allowed to remain, its presence will speed up the freezing over of the hole. If the hole is allowed to freeze over, of course, the ice fishing comes to an end.
Typically, some kind of a scoop or the bare or mittened hands of the fishermen themselves, have been used to lift the ice chips out onto the top surface of the ice. Here they rapidly freeze, adhering permanently to the ice where they are allowed to come to rest. Also, the scoop, or more importantly, the gloves of the ice fisherman will freeze because of the water encountered in attempting to remove all of the ice chips.
Many, if not most, ice fisherman arrange to have "fish houses" positioned over the bored holes. Typically, these houses are warmed by some kind of a gasoline or fuel oil fired heater. There is no convenient place for such ice chips inside of such a shack or house.
What was needed before the present invention was some way of getting all of the ice chips out of a newly bored cylindrical ice fishing hole without the ice chips having to come out through the top of the hole.
No preliminary search has been made of this invention; but the inventor is an experienced ice fisherman. Neither the inventor nor those in privity with him are aware of any prior art which is closer than the hand, glove, or scoop methods discussed above. Neither the inventor nor those in privity with him are aware of any prior art which anticipates the claims made herein.